Russian intelligence forms shadow mercenary army disguised as volunteers
Journalists have found evidence that Russian Defence Intelligence is recruiting mercenaries for the so-called Redut Private Military Company (PMC) under the guise of recruiting "volunteers", and also established which officials are involved in this.
Source: investigation by Radio Liberty
Details: The journalists identified a hundred Redut PMC fighters, established the units within it, found out their contract signing financial conditions, and also discovered who gave them orders and directly supervised them from the Russian intelligence side.
Radio Svoboda reported that the connection with Russian intelligence is proved by the Redut PMC internal documents obtained by journalists and in which the fighters indicate that they are subordinate to Russian intelligence.
This is, in particular, a report on the losses of the Redut unit called Volki (Wolves). Or the certificate issued to one of the fighters with an indicated number of a military unit, which, according to the journalists' analysis, is part of another military unit – 21208. It is part of the special forces of Russian Defence Intelligence which has been fighting in Ukraine since 2015.
Also, at least four identified fighters from the Volki unit are former or current intelligence employees.
Journalists also talked to a dozen people who recruit fighters for various divisions within the Redut and how potential recruits discovered that the so-called PMC is supervised and financed by Russian intelligence.
Radio Svoboda managed to talk to several Redut PMC fighters, who were captured by Ukrainian soldiers in 2022 and were later convicted of torturing Kherson Oblast residents. These are Ruslan Kolesnikov (Bulat), Mihail Ivanov (Pokrov), Valentin Bich (Rashyd) and Maksim Volvak (Eskadra).
They said they were going to serve in the Russian 16th Separate Guards Spetsnaz Brigade. The base of this brigade is located near Tambov, and, as the investigation found, PMC fighters undergo training there before being sent to Ukraine.
The journalists also named Colonel Alexey Kondratiev as one of the main curators of the so-called volunteer corps under Russian intelligence, which includes Redut officers and Vladimir Alekseyev, Deputy Chief of Russian intelligence, who is the main initiator of the creation of the so-called PMC.
Neither Vladimir Alekseye and Alexey Kondratiev, nor the Russian Defence Ministry, nor Dmitry Peskov, Spokesperson for the Russian President, answered the journalists' questions.
Radio Svobda said Sergey Drozdov is most likely responsible for recruiting mercenaries for the so-called PMC and for volunteer formations.
With the help of analysis of internal documents, the Russian military’s accounts on social media, data from private Russian bases, and satellite images of Ukraine’s territory, the journalists also managed to establish the path of this formation through Ukraine’s territory after 24 February: part of the Redut PMC troops took part in combat operations in Kyiv Oblast, and later in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Background:
- On 21 September 2022, Putin announced "partial mobilisation" in the Russian Federation. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said that 300,000 people would be mobilised.
- The Kremlin stressed that they would not mobilise more than 300,000 people.
- The media learned that as part of the mobilisation in Russia, the country would draft 1.2 million people. Putin denied this information.
- In late October, Putin said the "partial mobilisation" was over.
- In September 2023, in keeping his promise that Russia would not mobilise more than 300,000 people, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that another 270,000 Russians had signed contracts to serve as "volunteers".
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